Norfolk Artist and Scientist Fuse Art and Science over Climate Change.
North Norfolk recently declared a climate emergency; quickly followed closely by the House of Commons. This is hot on the heels of the first phase of an exciting Norfolk project to increase public engagement by fusing art with the science of climate change.
Norfolk artist Gennadiy Ivanov and Trevor Davies, former Pro Vice Chancellor for Research and Director of the Climatic Research Unit at UEA, have combined to represent aspects of climate change and its impacts in visual art in order to increase awareness in a wider section of people. They have just returned from Canada, a country which is amongst those most greatly affected by climate change.
Gennadiy Ivanov had already produced paintings related to sea-level rise and coastal erosion in Norfolk when he approached Professor Davies, who says “I was impressed by Gennadiy’s paintings. He interpreted and visualized coastal erosion in a way which I found striking, and I thought that his impressionistic images could have a wider impact”.
From Gennadiy Ivanov’s perspective, he knew that Norwich was a hot-bed of climate research and wanted advice on how best to develop his work in the climate change theme. “Professor Davies explained the principles of climate change and its impacts and convinced me that, together, we could produce a real fusion of science and art in this project. Everyone we spoke to in Norfolk was enthused by the project, including those who had experience of art in education as a means of getting over a story to those who might not otherwise be interested”.
The real breakthrough came when Professor Davies contacted a colleague in Canada, Professor John Pomeroy, who had spent time at UEA in the 1990s, and with whom co-operation had since continued. Professor Davies explained that “John is Director of a very effective and important research project in Canada called Global Water Futures (GWF). It is addressing the major climate change related events which Canada is experiencing: more severe floods, droughts, fires, recession of snow and ice-cover, and perma-frost melting. I felt that witnessing the impacts of these changes in landscapes which were very different to those in Norfolk could give scope Gennadiy to produce even more striking pictures”.
The two have just returned from a research trip in Canada in which Gennadiy Ivanov was able to join in GWF activities at a number of research sites in the Yukon, North West Territories, and the Rockies in Alberta. He says “I am very grateful for GWF support and feel enormously privileged to have witnessed the incredibly hard work put in by the scientists, involving sophisticated instrumentation in remote and difficult terrain. Sometimes the only way in was by helicopter or ski-plane. It made me realise the effort put in by scientists to understand and the effects of climate change and that sometimes it is necessary for them to use modes of transportation which emit global warming gases in order to better prepare us for the future”.
Gennadiy Ivanov was able to produce paintings in the field, of the research activities and landscapes which have been affected by climate change, which he is now using as a basis for his impressionistic images. Professor Trevor Davies said “Everyone who watched Gennadiy produce his paintings in the field was impressed by his speed of work, and by the way he was able to capture the important elements of what he was seeing”.
Amongst the scenes Gennadiy Ivanov witnessed were the outcomes of rapidly retreating glaciers, the effects of quick changes in lake-level, vegetation changes, the results of catastrophic floods, and forest fires. Even whilst the two were there, climate records were being broken in parts of Canada, including record floods in Ottawa and Montreal and record high temperatures in the North West Territories.
Art galleries and museums in Canada have invited exhibitions of the resulting art, combined with climate interpretations, and there is also an invitation to put on an exhibition in London. The pair plan exhibitions in Norfolk, with the hope of developing links with the Canadian galleries.
“I want to do justice, in my own terms, to the incredible landscapes which I saw in Canada, and the way in which they are being deeply affected by man-made global warming. I also want to use this experience to inform my future paintings representing environmental change in Norfolk, and link the changes in the gentler landscapes in our county to those in the more dramatic landscapes of Canada. I also want my art to be a tribute to the dedicated scientists whose work I saw”, said Gennadiy Ivanov.
Professor Davies remarked “I have no doubt that the exhibitions based on Gennadiy’s work will be successful. Many landscapes in Canada have changed dramatically since my first scientific visits there, and Gennadiy is able to represent this in an imaginative way. It was exciting to be part of this project to fuse art and science, and I look forward to adopting this approach to Norfolk. It was sobering to catch a quick snapshot of the nature of changes in large parts of Canada: perhaps the most sobering was to see the very large areas of landscape slumping resulting from the thawing of permafrost. It may have been this which prompted the Chief of the Gwich’in Indigenous Peoples to give his impression of the effect of climate change on his people: “It’s like watching a nuclear explosion in slow motion””.
North Norfolk recently declared a climate emergency; quickly followed closely by the House of Commons. This is hot on the heels of the first phase of an exciting Norfolk project to increase public engagement by fusing art with the science of climate change.
Norfolk artist Gennadiy Ivanov and Trevor Davies, former Pro Vice Chancellor for Research and Director of the Climatic Research Unit at UEA, have combined to represent aspects of climate change and its impacts in visual art in order to increase awareness in a wider section of people. They have just returned from Canada, a country which is amongst those most greatly affected by climate change.
Gennadiy Ivanov had already produced paintings related to sea-level rise and coastal erosion in Norfolk when he approached Professor Davies, who says “I was impressed by Gennadiy’s paintings. He interpreted and visualized coastal erosion in a way which I found striking, and I thought that his impressionistic images could have a wider impact”.
From Gennadiy Ivanov’s perspective, he knew that Norwich was a hot-bed of climate research and wanted advice on how best to develop his work in the climate change theme. “Professor Davies explained the principles of climate change and its impacts and convinced me that, together, we could produce a real fusion of science and art in this project. Everyone we spoke to in Norfolk was enthused by the project, including those who had experience of art in education as a means of getting over a story to those who might not otherwise be interested”.
The real breakthrough came when Professor Davies contacted a colleague in Canada, Professor John Pomeroy, who had spent time at UEA in the 1990s, and with whom co-operation had since continued. Professor Davies explained that “John is Director of a very effective and important research project in Canada called Global Water Futures (GWF). It is addressing the major climate change related events which Canada is experiencing: more severe floods, droughts, fires, recession of snow and ice-cover, and perma-frost melting. I felt that witnessing the impacts of these changes in landscapes which were very different to those in Norfolk could give scope Gennadiy to produce even more striking pictures”.
The two have just returned from a research trip in Canada in which Gennadiy Ivanov was able to join in GWF activities at a number of research sites in the Yukon, North West Territories, and the Rockies in Alberta. He says “I am very grateful for GWF support and feel enormously privileged to have witnessed the incredibly hard work put in by the scientists, involving sophisticated instrumentation in remote and difficult terrain. Sometimes the only way in was by helicopter or ski-plane. It made me realise the effort put in by scientists to understand and the effects of climate change and that sometimes it is necessary for them to use modes of transportation which emit global warming gases in order to better prepare us for the future”.
Gennadiy Ivanov was able to produce paintings in the field, of the research activities and landscapes which have been affected by climate change, which he is now using as a basis for his impressionistic images. Professor Trevor Davies said “Everyone who watched Gennadiy produce his paintings in the field was impressed by his speed of work, and by the way he was able to capture the important elements of what he was seeing”.
Amongst the scenes Gennadiy Ivanov witnessed were the outcomes of rapidly retreating glaciers, the effects of quick changes in lake-level, vegetation changes, the results of catastrophic floods, and forest fires. Even whilst the two were there, climate records were being broken in parts of Canada, including record floods in Ottawa and Montreal and record high temperatures in the North West Territories.
Art galleries and museums in Canada have invited exhibitions of the resulting art, combined with climate interpretations, and there is also an invitation to put on an exhibition in London. The pair plan exhibitions in Norfolk, with the hope of developing links with the Canadian galleries.
“I want to do justice, in my own terms, to the incredible landscapes which I saw in Canada, and the way in which they are being deeply affected by man-made global warming. I also want to use this experience to inform my future paintings representing environmental change in Norfolk, and link the changes in the gentler landscapes in our county to those in the more dramatic landscapes of Canada. I also want my art to be a tribute to the dedicated scientists whose work I saw”, said Gennadiy Ivanov.
Professor Davies remarked “I have no doubt that the exhibitions based on Gennadiy’s work will be successful. Many landscapes in Canada have changed dramatically since my first scientific visits there, and Gennadiy is able to represent this in an imaginative way. It was exciting to be part of this project to fuse art and science, and I look forward to adopting this approach to Norfolk. It was sobering to catch a quick snapshot of the nature of changes in large parts of Canada: perhaps the most sobering was to see the very large areas of landscape slumping resulting from the thawing of permafrost. It may have been this which prompted the Chief of the Gwich’in Indigenous Peoples to give his impression of the effect of climate change on his people: “It’s like watching a nuclear explosion in slow motion””.
'I wanted to capture some of the impacts of climate change in a region of Canada which has experienced some of the highest warming rates on the planet – Yukon, Northwest Territories, and the Rockies in Alberta. I was lucky enough to be able to join scientists, as they made routine visits to some of their observation stations and study sites.'
'I also returned to the Peyto Glacier in August – its shrinking form much more evident without snow-cover. GWF scientists use drones to photograph and sense the receding glacier . A brilliant sunny day on the glacier meant that my field paintings were amongst the most colourful I have produced of a glacier. Despite the bright colours, the bare moraines and sediment left by the retreating glacier gave me a sense of destruction, darkness and decay borne in rapid deglaciation due to human-caused climate change. In this painting is an example of the strange formations of cryoconite below the glacier snout, washed off the glacier by meltwater and accumulating in mini-mountain ranges about 2m high. This field painting looking down the valley from the current glacier snout gives an impression of the former scale of the glacier. At the base of the glacier were melt caverns, about 2m high, here captured in a field painting. Here I represent the criss-cross pattern of crevasses and melt channels on the glacier in an impressionistic way. '
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Transitions I catalogue online issuu.com/nsag/docs/transitions/a/223078
September-October Transitions collection of new paintings and drawings
Concise Description
Despite the exhortations of climate scientists over decades, action on climate change has been delayed too long. In the words of David Attenborough, “the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of our natural world is on the horizon”. That prospect, scientists say, will be unstoppable if major actions, not before attempted, are not taken over the next few years. Whether they are, or not, will determine to what extent the Earth remains inhabitable. The proposed project aims to represent that challenge, stimulating awareness amongst new audiences, via a range of techniques, styles, performance and media. The artist will have unprecedented access to the work of climate scientists, initially in Canada and the UK, and the project will be shown and performed at a number of venues including in the UK and Canada. The linkages between, and dislocations in, those natural systems and societies most at risk will be articulated and shown to the artist by practicing climate scientists – a fusion of science and art. Because of the unprecedented access to a global network of climate scientists, there is a realizable prospect of the project growing and evolving for exhibitions/performances around the world.
Images by Gennadiy Ivanov / August 2019: Peyto Glacier- GWF and The Canadian Centre for Water Forecasting and Prediction at the University of Saskatchewan.
Proposed artistic activity
Funding is sought for the second phase of this activity. The first phase has been successfully completed. This was making contact with climate scientist Professor Trevor Davies, former Director of the Climatic Research Unit and Co-Founder of the Tyndall Centre for Climate and being tutored by him in the fundamentals of climate change and its impact, including the importance of transition processes (phase changes, etc) in the climate system, and how representations of water (in its various phases) - or the lack of it – can be used as a messenger and impact vector of climate change. Professor Davies has put me in touch with one of his close colleagues, Professor John Pomeroy who is Director of Global Water Futures (the biggest water research programme in the world) headquartered in Saskatoon, Canada. I, therefore, have unprecedented access to the global network of climate scientists. I have been invited by Professors Pomeroy and Davies to join them on fieldwork during the snowmelt season this spring at three experimental locations in Canada in: the boreal forest; the Rocky Mountains; Wolf Creek near Whitehorse, Yukon. All logistical support will be provided and the Global Water Futures programme has awarded a grant of $5,000 Canadian.
Canada is suffering extremes related to climate change - floods, drought, fires – and I will be able to immerse myself in the scientist’s work and how they organise research in extreme environments. My plan is to sketch, photograph, and video, record the parameters and features they are measuring: snow, snowdrift, snowmelt, ice movement and cracking, torrents, clouds, rainfall, wind, sunshine, etc. I want to capture the human dimension of the scientist at work, and also register how local inhabitants are impacted, and how they cope, with climate change.
I believe that I can start an effective dialogue with my new colleagues through an exhibition of paintings I am now producing on an iconic symbol of the Earth System’s vulnerability to climate change; the polar bear. My first paintings have elicited an invitation to exhibit them in Saskatchewan and Alberta, and a provisional invitation to observe this autumn – to help develop my stylization of them – as they await the build-up of the (diminishing) sea ice in Hudson Bay.
The spring trip to Canada will produce the materials (recordings, sketches, videos, paintings) to make installations, films, lectures, which I will use to link with representations of the nature of climate change and its impact on Norfolk – for example, coastal erosion (water as the vector again) with the cooperation of climate scientists in Norwich. The first product of this extensive programme will be an installation and art project in my name in Norfolk and Saskatoon. A second product will be an integrated multi-participant exhibition which will include videos, paintings, multi-material (and some dynamic) sculptures, photographs, sound, light, performance (dance, theatre, music, song, etc) – in an attempt to mirror the inter-connected multi-variable, multi-dimensional nature of climate change, the Earth System and the two-way impact on societies.
Proposed artistic activity
Funding is sought for the second phase of this activity. The first phase has been successfully completed. This was making contact with climate scientist Professor Trevor Davies, former Director of the Climatic Research Unit and Co-Founder of the Tyndall Centre for Climate and being tutored by him in the fundamentals of climate change and its impact, including the importance of transition processes (phase changes, etc) in the climate system, and how representations of water (in its various phases) - or the lack of it – can be used as a messenger and impact vector of climate change. Professor Davies has put me in touch with one of his close colleagues, Professor John Pomeroy who is Director of Global Water Futures (the biggest water research programme in the world) headquartered in Saskatoon, Canada. I, therefore, have unprecedented access to the global network of climate scientists. I have been invited by Professors Pomeroy and Davies to join them on fieldwork during the snowmelt season this spring at three experimental locations in Canada in: the boreal forest; the Rocky Mountains; Wolf Creek near Whitehorse, Yukon. All logistical support will be provided and the Global Water Futures programme has awarded a grant of $5,000 Canadian.
Canada is suffering extremes related to climate change - floods, drought, fires – and I will be able to immerse myself in the scientist’s work and how they organise research in extreme environments. My plan is to sketch, photograph, and video, record the parameters and features they are measuring: snow, snowdrift, snowmelt, ice movement and cracking, torrents, clouds, rainfall, wind, sunshine, etc. I want to capture the human dimension of the scientist at work, and also register how local inhabitants are impacted, and how they cope, with climate change.
I believe that I can start an effective dialogue with my new colleagues through an exhibition of paintings I am now producing on an iconic symbol of the Earth System’s vulnerability to climate change; the polar bear. My first paintings have elicited an invitation to exhibit them in Saskatchewan and Alberta, and a provisional invitation to observe this autumn – to help develop my stylization of them – as they await the build-up of the (diminishing) sea ice in Hudson Bay.
The spring trip to Canada will produce the materials (recordings, sketches, videos, paintings) to make installations, films, lectures, which I will use to link with representations of the nature of climate change and its impact on Norfolk – for example, coastal erosion (water as the vector again) with the cooperation of climate scientists in Norwich. The first product of this extensive programme will be an installation and art project in my name in Norfolk and Saskatoon. A second product will be an integrated multi-participant exhibition which will include videos, paintings, multi-material (and some dynamic) sculptures, photographs, sound, light, performance (dance, theatre, music, song, etc) – in an attempt to mirror the inter-connected multi-variable, multi-dimensional nature of climate change, the Earth System and the two-way impact on societies.
Neither Prof Davies nor Prof Pomeroy have been directly involved in art projects before. However, they have both been heavily-involved in public engagement. Prof Davies has been involved in many engagement events during his time as Director of the Climatic Research Unit, Dean of the School of Environmental Sciences, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research, Enterprise and Engagement, all at UEA; UK Natural Environment Research Council Member, and Director of the Fudan Tyndall Centre in Shanghai. Similarly, Prof Pomeroy’s roles as Canada Research Chair in Hydrology and Director of the Global Water Futures programme has public engagement at their cores. Both have extensive experience in managing large-scale international research programmes. Taken together with their research expertises in climate, hydrology, snow/ice dynamics and chemistry, and atmospheric processes, they will prove (indeed, already have) effective partners for this project. They are both seasoned expedition leaders.
Neither Prof Davies nor Prof Pomeroy have been directly involved in art projects before. However, they have both been heavily-involved in public engagement. Prof Davies has been involved in many engagement events during his time as Director of the Climatic Research Unit, Dean of the School of Environmental Sciences, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research, Enterprise and Engagement, all at UEA; UK Natural Environment Research Council Member, and Director of the Fudan Tyndall Centre in Shanghai. Similarly, Prof Pomeroy’s roles as Canada Research Chair in Hydrology and Director of the Global Water Futures programme has public engagement at their cores. Both have extensive experience in managing large-scale international research programmes. Taken together with their research expertises in climate, hydrology, snow/ice dynamics and chemistry, and atmospheric processes, they will prove (indeed, already have) effective partners for this project. They are both seasoned expedition leaders.
Transitions: Canada Yukon, Northern territories sketches collection. Winter/Spring.
Pastels drawings.
Canada Transitions art expedition project collection. Pastels, gouache, digital art. Fusion of science and art. Climate change study, the changing environment of Western Canada: Sub-Arctic Mountains- monitoring, understanding and predicting the changing climate, land, vegetation, and water cycle at the Yukon territories and Canadian Rocky Mountains.
Transitions second expedition: Canadian Rockies and Saskatchewan prairies. Summer - Autumn.
Pastels/watercolours
Paintings from my recollection and imagination.
Геннадий Иванов, группа SKYNET, Эдвин Поуп и проблемы Арктики
Why is this activity important for your artistic development?
Just three months ago, the world’s climate scientists issued a stark warning – their starkest of many previous – that there are only 12 years remaining in which the take the necessary action to limit global warming to a level where the most catastrophic consequences can still be avoided. I believe this requires an unprecedented mobilization of all sectors of the community. Artists can play an important role in raising awareness and inspiring action. I would like to devote a significant part of my activity over the next years to this overwhelming threat and challenge to global well-being. I believe I have the appropriate techniques and skills to make a difference, especially when coupled with the expertise, experience and advice of scientists with a powerful background in climate science. It is so apposite that I am based in Norwich which is one of the global power houses in climate research. These connections will give me access to many aspects of climate research around the world. I want to be able to capture and represent subjects which give a strong sensory message about climate change, its threat and coping strategies. For that reason, I will be visiting a country where the impacts of climate change will be amongst the greatest: Canada. I will witness scientists work in forests, in snow- and ice-fields, in torrents, and sites of great drought. I will see, and talk to, communities which have been devastated by the extreme events nested in global warming. On a second trip, I hope to observe that iconic symbol of climate change: the polar bear as it waits (increasingly forlornly) for its millennia-old winter life-support platform of sea-ice to form.
I will learn how to meld such dramatic messages from another place to equally-dramatic, but less visual and consequential, in Norfolk. This will mirror the scientific connection. Prof Trevor Davies, who spent most of his career based at UEA, employed Prof John Pomeroy as a young post-doc. They worked together around the world, but especially in Canada. Prof Pomeroy is now Director of the Global Water Futures programme with 125 partner institutions throughout the world. Both are committed to continued collaboration with me, both for the first phases of this project and as it grows through future transitions – in scope and geographically.
Just three months ago, the world’s climate scientists issued a stark warning – their starkest of many previous – that there are only 12 years remaining in which the take the necessary action to limit global warming to a level where the most catastrophic consequences can still be avoided. I believe this requires an unprecedented mobilization of all sectors of the community. Artists can play an important role in raising awareness and inspiring action. I would like to devote a significant part of my activity over the next years to this overwhelming threat and challenge to global well-being. I believe I have the appropriate techniques and skills to make a difference, especially when coupled with the expertise, experience and advice of scientists with a powerful background in climate science. It is so apposite that I am based in Norwich which is one of the global power houses in climate research. These connections will give me access to many aspects of climate research around the world. I want to be able to capture and represent subjects which give a strong sensory message about climate change, its threat and coping strategies. For that reason, I will be visiting a country where the impacts of climate change will be amongst the greatest: Canada. I will witness scientists work in forests, in snow- and ice-fields, in torrents, and sites of great drought. I will see, and talk to, communities which have been devastated by the extreme events nested in global warming. On a second trip, I hope to observe that iconic symbol of climate change: the polar bear as it waits (increasingly forlornly) for its millennia-old winter life-support platform of sea-ice to form.
I will learn how to meld such dramatic messages from another place to equally-dramatic, but less visual and consequential, in Norfolk. This will mirror the scientific connection. Prof Trevor Davies, who spent most of his career based at UEA, employed Prof John Pomeroy as a young post-doc. They worked together around the world, but especially in Canada. Prof Pomeroy is now Director of the Global Water Futures programme with 125 partner institutions throughout the world. Both are committed to continued collaboration with me, both for the first phases of this project and as it grows through future transitions – in scope and geographically.
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Inspired by Melting glaciers. Oil on canvas paintings 100x100 cm
Transitions project art expedition April 2019.
TRANSITIONS CATALOGUE PUBLISHED 19.07.2019
Exhibition at The Forum in Norwich looks at the impact of climate change
Professor Pomeroy talk at COP25 in Madrid today. Very pleased and proud, what he shoved my paintings and mentioned my name in an important programme in the end. Great speech! Shocking and impressive!
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The Summer Glacier, oil on linen, 80x30 cm
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The Snowy Mountain, oil on canvas, 76x50 cm
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The Mountains paintings collection, 30x30 cm, oil on linen
